Though my correspondence with Miss Vulson was less animated, it was perhaps more endearing; we never separated without tears, and it can hardly be conceived what a void I felt in my heart.  I could neither think nor speak of anything but her.  These romantic sorrows were not affected, though I am inclined to believe they did not absolutely centre in her, for I am persuaded (though I did not perceive it at that time) being deprived of amusement bore a considerable share in them.

To soften the rigor of absence, we agreed to correspond with each other, and the pathetic expressions these letters contained were sufficient to have split a rock.  In a word, I had the honor of her not being able to endure the pain of separation.  She came to see me at Geneva.

My head was now completely turned; and during the two days she remained here, I was intoxicated with delight.  At her departure, I would have thrown myself into the water after her, and absolutely rent the air with my cries.  The week following she sent me sweetmeats, gloves, etc.  This certainly would have appeared extremely gallant, had I not been informed of her marriage at the same instant, and that the journey I had thought proper to give myself the honor of, was only to buy her wedding suit.

My indignation may easily be conceived; I shall not attempt to describe it.  In this heroic fury, I swore never more to see the perfidious girl, supposing it the greatest punishment that could be inflicted on her.  This, however, did not occasion her death, for twenty years after, while on a visit to my father, being on the lake, I asked who those ladies were in a boat not far from ours.  “What!” said my father smiling, “does not your heart inform you?  It is your former flame, it is Madame Christin, or, if you please, Miss Vulson.”  I started at the almost forgotten name, and instantly ordered the waterman to turn off, not judging it worth while to be perjured, however favorable the opportunity for revenge, in renewing a dispute of twenty years past, with a woman of forty.

Thus, before my future destination was determined, did I fool away the most precious moments of my youth.  After deliberating a long time on the bent of my natural inclination, they resolved to dispose of me in a manner the most repugnant to them.  I was sent to Mr. Masseron, the City Register, to learn (according to the expression of my uncle Bernard) the thriving occupation of a scraper.  This nickname was inconceivably displeasing to me, and I promised myself but little satisfaction in the prospect of heaping up money by a mean employment.  The assiduity and subjection required, completed my disgust, and I never set foot in the office without feeling a kind of horror, which every day gained fresh strength.

Mr. Masseron, who was not better pleased with my abilities than I was with the employment, treated me with disdain, incessantly upbraiding me with being a fool and blockhead, not forgetting to repeat, that my uncle had assured him I was a knowing one, though he could not find that I knew anything.  That he had promised to furnish him with a sprightly boy, but had, in truth, sent him an ass.  To conclude, I was turned out of the registry, with the additional ignominy of being pronounced a fool by all Mr. Masseron’s clerks, and fit only to handle a file.